2016 was my first full calendar year of cycling. Most weeks just have the short ~20 minute round daily commute to the train station. Once the days are longer though and on some weekends I’ve taken the chance to cycle further.
In March I bought a new bike – another hybrid, a Giant Roam 2. Lock-out front suspension is much better, no more feeling like I’m in a boat.
I managed to bike home all the way from work a couple of times. Work and home are both within a few 100 metres of the Trans-Pennine trail so that’s handy. It’s about 30km. I’ll try to do this more often this year – once the days are longer
I’ve discovered a few other nice routes around Chesterfield too; the canal towpath, quiet roads & tracks between Tapton, Calow and Heath and the various branches of the Trans-Pennine trail. One of my favourite local rides was via the backroads to Chatsworth and then home via Stone Edge. Unfortunately my phone battery died so I only recorded some of a ride.
We took our bikes with us on holiday a couple of times – once for pootling around Center Parcs and the other time in Cornwall – as well as riding into the nearest town we also did the Coast to Coast to Coast – Hayle to Marazion and back and rode into St Ives. Going up the hills out of St Ives with Hugo in the child seat was fun!
Longest ride was 92km, from home to Sherwood Pines, a lap around and back again. Looking forward to trying a long ride like that again.
I managed to do 1685km, climbing 19454 metres over 352 rides.
Aims for 2017 are to do more non-commute riding, get more kilometres under my belt than I did in 2016 and have a 100km ride.
Dean Sas 